With the American economy finally seeming to show some signs of life, many groups are now lobbying for a crash program to renovate public schools.  In early March, for example, the National Center for Educational Statistics released a report, saying it would take at least $200 billion to upgrade the nation’s K-12 facilities to “good overall condition.” Not to be outdone, the US Green Building Council released its own “State of Our Schools” report a week later, putting the minimum tab at $271 billion -- $572 billion if schools were modernized to what the USGBC considers “today’s health and safety standards.” And while school construction is typically a state and local responsibility, some liberal policy analysts, such as Jared Bernstein, Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, have called for a one-time massive federal investment in K-12 education infrastructure. Many of our schools have certainly been...(Read Full Article)